


Griselda and Briar

by MagicalStranger13



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 06:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4252440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalStranger13/pseuds/MagicalStranger13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Heat has passed, Marianne, feeling sated and in an oddly romantic mood, asks Griselda to tell her a story...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Griselda and Briar

**Author's Note:**

> As Griselda said: FINALLY!  
> This puppy has been stewing for ages and I'm am so glad I've finished it! It's been a while since I posted/updated, so thank you all for waiting so patiently! 
> 
> Takes place after the events of 'Wild Thing, I Think I Love You'. I am still working on that one, but at least you'll all know from reading this that everything turned out great! 
> 
> Anyway, I'll shut up now. Enjoy!

The haze of dreams faded away like fog sliding off a lake to follow the vanishing pre-dawn hours, leaving behind the clear and still waters of consciousness.  The rippling effect of wakefulness was reluctantly received by Marianne. 

In all her twenty-three years of existence, she had _never_ been more relaxed and _happy_.  She was content to spend the rest of her life right here, in this bed of moss and cottonwood down. 

Unfortunately, her effort to do just that was unable to combat the base instinct of survival.          

As comfortable as she was, the fairy princess could no longer ignore the persistent, late morning rays and the incessant growling in her empty stomach. 

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sleeping; it could’ve been for days.  She vaguely remembered Bog carrying her back to the castle once the Heat began to fade from his system.  However, the _delicious_ way he’d licked all over her upper back until she fell fully asleep again was as clear in her memory as a mid-summer sky. 

One tiny stretch against the sheets was the only reassurance she needed to remember that she was still completely naked!  

A slight wince touched her face as she shifted from her belly to her side.    

Ooh, she was _definitely_ going to have to bathe soon and her muscles were _incredibly_ sore…

…but she was just too _blissfully_ sated to care about _anything_!

*gurgle*

Except food!

She squirmed again and turned to look at her goblin lover. 

Since she’d slept on her stomach, Bog had curled himself over her right side, almost like a shield.  Despite her slight movements, his breathing remained deep and rhythmic and his face was the perfect, stoic mask of a nearly comatose slumber.

A pool of joy and passion gathered in her chest as she remembered his wild abandon in the past few days.  How he’d clutched her hips with such power.  The pleading press of his mouth everywhere!  Lustful growls and roars!  Man, if she wasn’t so exhausted right now…  

With a quiet sigh, Marianne stretched up and placed a soft kiss on his lips to wake him.  When he didn’t stir, she kissed him again and gently scraped her teeth across his bottom lip.  _That_ never failed to get a reaction out of him. 

…

Nothing.

She would’ve been worried had she not remembered what Griselda had said about the post-mating stage of Stasis.

_...The Heat takes a lot of energy out of you, honey.  Do you have any idea how much stamina it takes to have hard sex for three days straight?  A ton!  Bog will sleep for about two and a half to three days to recover, after the mating is through and he brings you back here.  You’ll probably get up before he does, so if he doesn’t respond to you, don’t panic!  He’ll wake up soon enough, but even when he does, he’ll still be groggy and listless for a while…_

Shrugging off her faint pulse of disappointment, Marianne carefully scooted out from under Bog’s limp form.  He flopped face down with the animation of a slug, forcing the fairy to maneuver his head to the side to prevent him from suffocating himself against the pillows. 

Her amused grin was short, soon replaced by a look of contemplation as she scanned the chambers for an article of clothing.  It was obvious now that Bog hadn’t brought her clothes back with them from the hollow trunk.  She only hoped he _had_ remembered to wrap her up in her wings.  The whole Dark Forest didn’t need to see her nude, thank you very much.

A splash of outstanding color caught her eye.  In the far corner, hanging from a carved knot on the wall, was a lovely silk robe of dark scarlet.  Eyes wide with awe, Marianne reached for it almost greedily.  The fabric was soft as a dandelion’s kiss against her skin.

_Thank you, Griselda!_

 

* * *

 

 

The castle was dead silent as Marianne padded down the various halls and stairways leading to the kitchen.  It didn’t take a genius to guess that Bog wasn’t the only one trying to replenish energy. 

As she neared the adjacent dining room, a scrumptious smell filled her nostrils and Marianne’s mouth watered accordingly.  She could hear the muted sound of cutlery clinking against a plate.  Someone was up and eating!

Cautiously, the princess peeked around the corner and was relieved to see Griselda sitting alone at the grand table, enjoying a hearty breakfast.  A large covered tray and a pitcher of juice were set for second and even third helpings.

Hunger renewed all over again, Marianne stepped fully into the room and uttered a hushed cough to announce her presence.     

“Good _morning_ , sweetheart!”  The old queen greeted with a fond smile, though there was an obvious glint of concern in her eyes.  “How do you feel?”

“Incredible.”

“No injuries?”

“ _None_.” 

“Did you sleep well?”

“The _best_.”

Griselda chuckled impishly.

“Heh, you’re _coaling_.” 

Marianne cocked her head to the side. 

“I’m _what_?”   

“It’s just a term we goblins use to describe that post-Heat euphoria.  When a fire goes out, the coals glow ‘cause they’re still hot; _coaling_.  Anyway, I’m very happy to hear that everything turned out alright.”

She lifted the tray cover so Marianne could see her selection. 

“Would you like some eggs, dear?”

“Three, please.” 

 

* * *

 

 

They ate their meals in companionable silence only randomly broken a few times by general banter. 

Perhaps it was the _coaling_ Griselda had referred to, but Marianne found her mood to be oddly romantic, once she’d eaten her fill.  So, as she finished wiping the corners of her mouth clean of crumbs, she couldn’t resist her curiosity about a certain subject:     

“Hey Griselda, how did you meet Bog’s father?”

The gobliness blinked up at her in momentary surprise, before blushing and giggling like a bashful school girl.  She even cupped her cheeks!

“Oh honey, you don’t wanna hear that silly old story!”

“Yes I do!”  Marianne insisted with a beam as she leaned forward in her seat.  “Tell me!  I’ll bet it’s a really cute story!”

Griselda scratched the back of her neck.

“Well……I don’t know…”

“Come on, _please_?”

“Oh……oh alright, dear; since you asked nicely.  As you can plainly see, it was years and years and _years_ ago.  I met Briar one night as a teenager, when Thunder brought him to my village.”

“Briar?  That was his name?”

“Yep.”

“Who was Thunder?”

A shadow fell across Griselda’s face and when she spoke again, her voice was somewhat tighter. 

“He was the Thunder King; Briar’s father.”

Marianne almost questioned her tone, but the former queen perked up in half a second and continued her tale.

“As I said, it was a _looooong_ time ago.  When I was a young girl, I used to live in a little village called Ivy Slope, right by the Primrose border.”

“Oh yeah, Bog said something about that a few weeks ago.  He said they were all torn down when he… _banished_ love from the Dark Forest.”

Griselda rolled her eyes.

“Yes, he inherited his father’s tendency to overreact.  Anyway, one evening, when I was a teenager, we were holding a festival to celebrate the beginning of summer.  Oh, we used to throw such _great_ parties!  We had racing and wrestling games, there was singing, _tons_ of food, a bonfire, and of course, _my_ favorite, _dancing_!”

“I didn’t know you liked to dance!”

The gobliness shrugged.

“Eh, haven’t been able to in over thirty years; bad hip.  It’s a shame, though, ‘cause I was a damn jitterbug on the dancefloor!  Not to mention the most desirable partner of _all_ the boys!  Believe it or not, I used to be quite the foxy little _dish_ , back then!”

The two shared a feminine laugh before Griselda could go on.

“Things were going fabulously, as always, until a couple of…unexpected guests arrived.”

“Thunder and Briar?”

“You got it.”

“What _happened_?”

“ _Well_ , everybody was absolutely _terrified_!  But, of course, we couldn’t just _stop_ the festivities.  Then we’d all get _punished_!  So the party went on just as _awkwardly_ as you can _imagine_!  The Thunder King was stompin’ around all over the place, barkin’ about the weather, the crops and all other kinds of nonsense to every group there; and he actually _forced_ Briar to go and dance with every goblin girl he could find.  He said it was important for his son to socialize, so his subjects could recognize their future lord’s face.”

Marianne’s face contorted as she tried to picture the absurdity of that fateful night.

“Makes…sense, I guess?”

“Yeah well, too bad Briar was absolutely _terrible_ at socializing.  He was so nervous, he snarled at every girl he approached, and then he proceeded to insult them throughout the entire dance number.”

“Oooh,” Marianne cringed, “not good.”

“Nope.  He scared my best friend half to death when he snarled at her to dance with him, and then during the number, he said her antennae were too short to be useful and the color of her elytra was disappointing.  She was a beetle, you see.  Her name was Desdemona.  She was so shaken up, she started crying as soon as she got away from him.  I had to take her to a nearby clover patch and it took me an _hour_ to calm her down.”

“Poor thing!”

“Yeah, and she wasn’t the only one.  That was _exactly_ why I’d been doing my best to avoid him the whole night, but my luck ran out when I went to get some frog legs.  He spotted me by the refreshment table and he said: ‘You there!  Horned one!  Dance with me!’”

“Horned one?  Really?”

“Uh-huh,” Griselda sighed, “that was Briar for ya.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, I was so flustered at being caught and angry at the way he’d treated my friend, I just looked at him and said, ‘I wouldn’t dance with you even if it was my last day on earth!’”

“Ooooo!  What did _he_ say?!”

“Nothing at first.”  Griselda smirked.  “He was too stunned to answer right away, but when he got his tongue back, he was all like: ‘How dare you disobey the Thunder Prince!  I order you to dance with me, at once!’”

“And you told him off, right?”

“I sure did.  I said it didn’t matter _who_ or _what_ he was, _nobody_ commands a _lady_ to dance with them.”

“Good for you!”

“Then he said I was _not_ a _lady_ , I was nothing but a lowly _peasant_ and that peasants should know their place, and be _flattered_ to receive such attention from royalty.”

“He _didn’t_!”

“He _did_.  I told him the only way he could _hope_ to flatter _this_ peasant, would be if he took his _attention_ and _shoved_ it.”

Marianne howled with laughter and gave Griselda a short applause. 

“Thank you, dear.  Well after that, he swore I would regret showing such disrespect to the crown and that his father would make sure I suffered greatly.  Then he started heading off to find him, and Marianne, I was just so ticked at the way he’d treated Mona and all my friends and neighbors……and I might’ve had too much to drink, so I said the one thing that stopped him dead in his tracks.”

“What was it?!”

“I said: ‘Aw, the almighty Thunder Prince needs his daddy to fight his battles for him?’”

The fairy princess felt a swell of pride at the familiarity of Griselda’s words, but remained silent.

“Of course I didn’t know it at the time, but I had just poked at his biggest insecurity and he was not about to be made to look like a helpless child.  So he spun around, marched right up to my face and said, no, he did _not_ need _anyone_ to help him deal with a worthless and insolent hussy, like me.  Then I said something like, well this ‘worthless and insolent hussy’ would never dance with anybody unless she was asked _properly_.  That meant he had to bow, ask quietly, say _please_ , and be fully prepared to _still_ get refused!  He blew his top, stating that he was the prince and princes did not have to put on such a degrading display for the hand of a filthy commoner.”

“Geez, what did you say then?”

“I gave him a sassy wink and said: ‘Then you’ll never know what you’re missing, _loser_.’”

“You were such a _badass_!”

“What I _was_ , was stupidly _lucky_.  If the Thunder King had heard me talk that way to his son, I wouldn’t have a head on my shoulders anymore.”    

“So what did Briar do?”

“Ugh, he was such a _drama_ queen!  He tried to completely _ruin_ the rest of my evening!  He went around to every goblin male at the party and threatened them _not_ to dance with me!”

“He did?”  Marianne giggled.  “Seriously?!”

“He sure did!  He said he’d crush their skulls if they so much as _thought_ about it!  But that wasn’t even the _worst_ of it!”

“It wasn’t?”

“Oh no!  The _worst_ part was that the next morning, there were two goblin guards at my front door and they dragged me kicking and screaming out of my village and all the way to the castle!”

The princess’s mirth died down. 

“What for?!”

“The sorehead actually went and decreed that _I_ be made his personal _servant_ -girl!”

“ _What_?!”  Marianne exclaimed, now a little peeved.  “Oh my _God_!”

“I know.”

“You must’ve been _pissed_!”

“Oh-ho-ho!”  Griselda grinned evilly.  “I was _madder_ than a smacked hornet, honey!  And he was such a pompous _ass_ about it!  Making me cook and serve his meals, scrub his floors, dust his furniture, do his laundry, and draw his baths, the _works_!  One time, he made me get out of my bed _six_ times in the middle of the night because he just _couldn’t_ decide if he wanted his window _open_ or _shut_!” 

Marianne crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair with a noise of disgust.

“What a jerk!  What did you do about it?  I would’ve kicked his ass!”

“I’ll _tell_ you what I _did_ about it!  I did _exactly_ what he asked me to do _every_ single time.”

“You _what_?!’

“No matter how infuriating or menial the task, I just held my head high and did it without complaint.  And every time I _finished_ doing whatever it was he wanted, I would turn to him, stick my chin in the air and say, ‘You still _can’t_ make me _dance_ with you!’  He’d usually double, or even triple my workload after that; but I kept my cool.  It was about pride.” 

“So what made you _ever_ fall in _love_ with him?”

Griselda’s gaze filled with a sad tenderness and she stared out the window, no doubt reliving a thousand memories.

“Well, I don’t have to explain to _you_ how conflict can sometimes nurture intimacy.”

Marianne blushed and shyly glanced away, but remained silent as Griselda continued.

“I won’t lie, it took a few years, but gradually, I started to notice and… _understand_ things in a different way.  When you’re someone’s personal servant, obviously, you spend a whole lot of time with them.  Even though most of our exchanges back then were pretty snarky, I soon learned a lot about him; and vice versa, since you already know how much _I_ like to talk!”

The princess smiled at the joke, but pressed for more. 

“What kind of things did you notice?”

“I noticed that we had a lot of things in common.  Hobbies, food preferences, thoughts and ideas about politics, religion, life…”

Griselda grew suddenly quiet and the atmosphere of the room seemed heavier.

“What…else did you notice?”   

“I saw how……lonely……and… _sad_ he was.”    

An image of Bog standing in this very dining room, only a few months ago, came to Marianne’s mind.  The slouch in his sharp frame and the pain in his sweet blue eyes made her heart stutter in fear and sympathy.

“I’m sure you’ve realized by now, dear, that……Bog is…the only goblin around here that……looks the way he does.  The thin build, the scales, the wings.  You can see that he inherited his looks from his father; the same as Briar did from Thunder.”

 _…Even with a love potion……I’m too hideous to love_ …

Marianne winced at the remembrance of those horrible words.

“Why did Bog think he was hideous?”

“To answer that, I’d have to tell you about Thunder and how he came to be king of the Dark Forest.  Contrary to what you might believe, these woods are actually much bigger than you’d expect.  There are places even we goblins fear to venture.  We have our own legends of monsters and boogeymen living beyond those trees.  There was a time when a creature possessing Bog’s physical qualities, was considered to be a thing of nightmares from the deepest shadows.”

Marianne blinked in shock and readjusted herself in her chair, the protective streak in her soul rising. 

“What?”

“Over fifty years ago, Thunder appeared in this part of the forest.  He had traveled alone from a mysterious and faraway place; the kind of place we told scary stories about.  And because everyone was scared, they tried to kill him.  So he reacted in the only other way he could: he slayed the resident goblin king and took his place on the throne.”

Griselda’s face morphed into a harsh scowl and her hands fisted in her lap.

This time, Marianne didn’t let her zip past the sign of contempt.

“Was there a problem with Thunder?”

It took the old queen a few minutes to compose herself before she could answer.

“He was……a very…good _king_.  That, I will never contest.  He was wise and strong and he was even the main reason behind the stagnated truce between the kingdoms.  He abolished the night hunts and outlawed the consumption of fairy and elf flesh.  Rather ironic, considering how brutal he was.”

“Brutal?”

“Like I said, he was a very good king……but he was a _despicable_ father!  He beat and demoralized Briar nearly every day of his life.  It wasn’t until I’d been at the palace for a year that I finally figured out that Briar was, in a way, protecting me.”

“How?”

“As a personal servant, I spent most of my time in or near Briar’s quarters.  Encounters with Thunder were an extreme rarity.  Such a bitter and angry man often took his hatred of the world out on individuals and servants were easy targets, but with Briar, he could pass such abuse off as _education_.”        

“Gosh…I’m……I’m so sorry.”

Griselda reached across the table and kindly squeezed Marianne’s hand.

“It’s not your fault, sweetheart, but I appreciate it all the same.  Anyway, so just like my precious boy, Briar grew up without any friends, because of the way he looked _and_ because of the gruff personality he was developing, _all_ thanks to Thunder.”

Marianne bit her lip as she processed all this new information.  She tried not to imagine history repeating itself in the form of a crying, winged goblin child with an exoskeleton and scrawny limbs, sitting all by himself in a corner.

_Bog._

_Briar._    

“So…how did you…?  You know…”

“Confess our feelings? 

“Yeah.”

“I was bandaging Briar up after another ‘sparring’ session with Thunder.  He was going on and on about how it didn’t hurt and that it was important for a king to be tough; trying to put on a brave front.  All the while he had tears in his eyes.  So…I did the stupidest _smart_ thing I could think of to comfort him.”

“What did you-?”

“I kissed him.”

“You-!  You _kissed_ him?!”

“Right there in his private washroom; and he kissed me back.  It was the most amazing moment of my whole life……until I ruined it by having a panic attack and running away.”

“Oh no!”

“Make no mistake, I was _not_ ashamed of _kissing_ him!  By that point, I’d been wanting to kiss him for a long time.  I was ashamed because……because….”

“Why, Griselda?”

“…because…he was a prince……and I…I was just an ordinary farmer’s daughter.”

“Huh?  But…but, Griselda-!”

“I know, I know.  He went from being some bastard I wanted strangle……to someone so wonderful, I thought I could never hope to deserve, no matter how badly I wanted him.  Power of love and all that, right?  Unfortunately, he thought the only reason I fled was because I realized just how ugly he really was and that the kiss was a…heat of the moment sort of thing.  But you see, I……never thought of him as being…unattractive.  Not even in the beginning.  I didn’t really think of him in the physical sense.  It was like he didn’t register.  By the time he did, he was nothing but charmingly handsome to me.”

“How did you work it all out?”

“When I finally calmed down and went back to him, he……well, he tried to tell me that I should return to my village; that he didn’t need a personal servant-girl anymore.  I got mad and said he couldn’t take care of himself for a single day without me.  He was really upset because……he didn’t even try to argue back.  That just got me even more worked up and I started shouting at him about how he was being an idiot and that I wasn’t going _anywhere_.  Not without him.”

“Aw!”

“He told me that I was the kindest, the bravest, and most beautiful goblin he’d ever met, and that that was _precisely_ why I should leave, so I could find someone worthy of me.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I said: ‘Then who could be more worthy of me, than a prince, if I’m so awesome?’”  

“Yay!  And that convinced him?”

“That and a few more kisses; then we were officially engaged, and when he held me in his arms at our wedding, he leaned in and said: ‘See?  I finally got you to dance with me!’, then I may or may not have stomped on his foot.”

The pair chortled together until they had to wipe the tears from their eyes.  As her breath regulated itself, Marianne’s line of thought altered to something more serious.

“I don’t mean to sound rude but, was Brair……a good father to Bog?”

 Griselda gave the fairy a rueful half-frown.

“He was a far better father to Bog than Thunder ever was to him.  It was very difficult, and I won’t lie, he wasn’t the easiest male to get along with, but he always tried.  Most of the time, I was the bridge between them and I often still wonder if Bog truly appreciated his father’s efforts; if he still doubts that Briar loved him more than anything else in the world.”

“If you don’t mind my asking……how did…?  How did…he die?”

Griselda hung her head and her expression filled with the kind of sorrow that can never be erased.

“He was……sick…for a very long time.  As much as he hated his father, he was nonetheless pressured to be exactly like him…in every way, and……one of Thunder’s habits was…pipe-smoking deadly nightshade.”

“Deadly nightshade?!”

“Yes, among others.  It was once seen as a sign of potent masculinity.  What a bunch of rubbish!"

Griselda shook herself, perhaps trying to banish the widow's depression from taking a fresh hold.

“Bog doesn’t-!  Had he ever-?!”

“Goodness gracious, no!  I told Briar he could inhale all the poison he wanted, if being pigheaded was what he preferred, but if I _ever_ caught Bog smoking that garbage, I’d spank the scales off of him!”

“Off of _Bog_?”

“No, off of _Briar_!  _Then_ , off of Bog.”

The dining room was filled with their gleeful snickering until a deep-timbered yawn from the doorway snagged their attention.  

“Bog!”  Griselda exclaimed.  “You’re up already, honey?  Huh, pretty impressive for your first Heat.  I didn’t expect you to wake until, at least, sometime after sundown.”

The current goblin king didn’t reply to his mother.  His entire focus was on Marianne alone.  Groggy and listless as Griselda had forewarned, he trudged across the room and leaned his front against the back of Marianne’s chair, making the princess crane her neck back to gaze into his weary, but still devastatingly tender eyes. 

“I’ll take that as my cue to get scarce.”  Griselda announced, hopping to her feet and waddling quickly for the exit.  “I enjoyed our chat, Marianne.  We should have another one soon!”

And with that, the old queen was gone and the two lovers were alone again. 

Marianne winked at Bog’s upside-down face.

“Morning, sunshine!” 

She rose from her seat to face him, but Bog stepped around the chair before she could turn fully, and wrapped his arms around her torso in a hug from behind.

“Are ye alright?”

“I’m perfect.”

 _Talk about_ _déjà vu!_

“I didn’t hurt ye?”

“No, you did the exact opposite.”

Bog lowered his head so his nose could trace the curve of her shoulder.

“Mmm…come back tah bed.”

Holy crawdads!  That sentence was now on her official list of favorite things to hear Bog say. She automatically reached around his shoulders and Bog swept her into his arms without missing a beat.  

Too spent to fly, the walk back to Bog’s chambers was slow, but it gave Marianne time to reflect on what she’d learned from Griselda. 

There were still _many-many-many_ things she wanted to know about Bog’s childhood, but something inside of her twisted at the thought of him being rejected by other goblin children and cruelly disciplined by his father, no matter how well-meaning the ex-monarch’s intentions might’ve been at the time.

For now, it was her intention to chase away those insecurities; to make sure he never doubted her feelings for him.  In the mental, emotional and physical sense.

When they made it back to Bog’s room, the goblin set Marianne on her feet and she sauntered over to the bed, absentmindedly shedding her robe as she went.  Not until she settled under the blanket, did she realize that Bog hadn’t moved another inch.

He was just standing by the chamber door……staring at her.

“Bog, what is it?”

Was he bothered by the scratches and bruises?

_He better not be.  I’m proud of those!  They're like his signature!  Besides, I left mine on his throat._

“There’s a naked goddess in my bed.”

.

.

.

In a clearer state of mind, Marianne would’ve snorted at his cheesiness, but right now, the compliment sent a roaring thrill up her spine. 

“Well, guess what?  She wants a naked king to join her.”

“If I wasn’t so worn out, I’d make lofe to ye right now; properly.”

“Is that so?  Then I guess we should get to sleep immediately, now come’re.”

He didn’t need to be prompted twice.  Bog obediently crossed the space, crawled into the bed and made to lay beside her, but Marianne had a better idea.

She reached out and cradled his head against her breast, letting her steady heartbeat lull him to sleep.

_My precious Bog King.  I love you so much, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never doubt that for a single moment._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and/or kudos make me write faster! Hope you guys liked it!  
> <3


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